^i&^J 'RnoADS on the Hiidsonian Chickadee and its Allies. 32^ 



casual reference to it in the first edition of his 'Key' but 

 omits it in tlie second edition. 



The total lack of hudronicus skins from the type locality is a 

 fundamental defect, for upon the character of these depends the 

 validity of littorali', and ungava. Should the Severn River 

 types correspond to the Ungava birds, Dr. Bryant's form must 

 stand and mine be regarded as a synonym of hudsonicus. There 

 is a possibility that this is the correct arrangement but, as I have 

 endeavored to show, it is improbable. 



Another variety which, as such, has no place in the A. O. U. 

 Check-List, was brought to public notice in 1884 by Dr. Cones in 

 the second edition of the 'Key to North American Birds.' It is 

 briefly introduced as follows : — •"/'. h. evura nobis. Alaska speci- 

 mens are larger [than hudsonicus]., the tail nearly 3 [inches]. 

 Thus corresponding with P. a. seftentrionalis and being quite 

 the size of P. cincttts, from which distinguished by retaining 

 precisely the coloration of P. hudsonicus." As will be shown, 

 this race is as tenable as any other of the /^M(/Jora^'c^/^ group. It 

 is not, even in part, the same as stoneyi,vfh\d\ hails from a more 

 arctic environment than any of the specimens examined by Dr. 

 Cones. 



P. h. colunibiaiius, a third subspecies, was recently described 

 by the writer in a preliminary report on the Birds of Washington 

 and British Columbia, published in 'The Auk' (Jan., 1893). 

 This race is characterized as larger and darker than any of a 

 series of forty skins from Alaska and from other localities in . 

 British America. The type series was taken in the Rocky 

 Mountains of southern British Columbia. Three additional skins, 

 one each from the mountains east and west of the type locality in 

 British Columbia, and one from the Rockies near the northwestern 

 border of Montana, confirm my diagnosis that this race shows the 

 highest development of the group both in size and depth of 

 coloring. 



A fourth form of P. hudsonicus, described by Mr. Ridgway 

 in the appendix to his 'Manual of North American Birds' as a 

 distinct species, Parus stoneyi (classed as a subspecies in our 

 Check-List), is the last member of this perplexing group to claim 

 attention. Its status has already been touched upon. To this 

 list I feel justified in adding a fifth candidate, P. hudsonicus 



